Chapter 59: The Rook’s Battle
Jason looked the large Soldeir Ant Rook in the eye as he commanded it to look after its subordinates, and the Ant screeched while moving its mandibles to tell Jason that it understood.
The ten subordinates that Jason had put under the Rook’s command suddenly underwent special changes of their own. Their fur and exoskeleton began to grow tougher and thicker as their durability increased by a hundred percent, and they moved to stand around the Rook obediently, showing that they were now taking orders from both Jason and the Rook.
The added defenses would allow them to tank at least twice as many attacks as they would normally withstand. This would be perfect for when Jason wanted to attack an area that had high-level attackers.
Jason nodded at their changes with a small smile before he started to lay out a plan.
They would keep to their regular formation as they moved towards the next tunnel entrance, but this time, the Rook and his subordinates were going to be in front, leading the charge. They had the highest defenses out of all his subordinates, so they would bear the brunt of attacks from the ants first, and then after wearing them down, the others would charge in for an attack.
"Your goal is to tire them out as quickly as possible. Keep them contained and make sure they can’t escape by taking their wings off. That way, we’ll be able to deal with the faster ones. You understand?"
Jason said this to the Rook and the Rook screeched again once it received its orders before it quickly let out a screech towards its own subordinates. The ten that Jason had picked to work under it all moved to stand behind it, and Jason watched as it screeched at them in a threatening way, almost like it was making sure they understood that they were to obey him.
Jason nodded at its initiative, and he called on the scout that he had been riding earlier. The scout came and lay down on the ground to allow him to climb on. He then ordered the entire Legion to charge forward, and they all headed out towards the next entrance together!
...
The Adamantine Ant Hill was a colony made up of more than three hundred ants. They had formed a well-oiled, functioning society that was capable of operating independently of any leader and didn’t need any form of interference from outside parties for them to carry out their functions.
In fact, their system was so well organized that even if a Queen were to die at that moment, they would still be able to continue working without realizing what they had lost, and in no time at all, the workers would have already nurtured a new Queen that would handle the colony.
The colony as a single unit was the most dominant race existing on this hill, and there were no enemies or organisms that could pose a threat to them at all.
The entrance that Jason had fought at was the western entrance that led to the back of the hill. The Adamantine ants used a North-East-West-South cardinal pattern to make sure that they could protect all four regions of their terrain without any breaks.
The ants at the other entrances of the cave were still completely unaware of the dangers that were coming for them! And Jason decided that the next entrance he would attack was the Northern Entrance!
A large Adamantine Ant scout was hovering in the air and looking out into the horizon for any signs of danger. Its beady eyes roamed from left to right as it watched the territory religiously and the only sound in the area was the beating of its wings as it hovered in the air. But the ant suddenly felt shock pass through its body as it saw another scout coming from the distance.
The regular scout buzzed around gently as it wondered why the new scout was coming all the way over here. The scouts all had a different part of the terrain to watch over, and they didn’t move away from their terrain unless there was a serious issue and they needed to call for help from the other terrains!
So the scout immediately guessed that the new scout was coming to them in order to ask for help, and it sent a signal out to the other scouts around it and told one of them to go and intercept the incoming scout and ask it what it was doing here!
The third scout buzzed away towards the incoming scout calmly to meet it on the way, but the original scout felt an even bigger shock pass through its body when the new scout suddenly used its mandible to tear the third scout’s wings in half!
The first scout reeled back in shock as it realized that something was seriously wrong and it was about to send out a signal to the other scouts and tell them to prepare to kill the new scout! There was something wrong with that scout and they needed to get rid of it before it affected the colony!
But it suddenly froze when it saw the space around the incoming scout ripple with a purple light, like waves across water! And from within those ripples, ten more ants emerged!
The incoming ants were made up of both scouts and soldiers, but they all had purple streaks across their bodies that showed that they had gone through some sort of mutation! Now that it was looking closer, the first scout could see that the incoming ants looked larger than what they were supposed to look like! What the hell happened to them!?
The ants were heading towards them quickly, and in front of all these ants was one ant that was completely different from anything the scout had ever seen before! It was meant to be a soldier ant, but its body was covered in an exoskeleton that looked nearly three times tougher than what the other soldiers had! This was definitely not normal!
The scout immediately realized that they were under attack! It didn’t know what in the world had happened to its comrades, but it didn’t care! At that moment, the only instinct in its mind was to protect the colony!
It sent a signal to all of the soldier ants on the ground, warning them of the incoming danger!
The number of ants here was the same as there were in the other entrances! Fifty worker ants were carrying vegetation and dead carcasses into the tunnel to feed the colony, and ten soldier ants were tasked with protecting the workers and making sure that no enemies made it through the entrance!
The soldier ants all perked up the moment they heard the scout’s signal, and they began to buzz into the air with an air of hostility surrounding them! The worker ants didn’t bother to stop their movement as they continued carrying vegetation and carcasses! They were certain that the soldiers would be able to protect them from anything that attacked, so they didn’t need to worry!
The soldiers arranged themselves into a formation and charged forward, and from his place on the other side of the forest, Jason watched with his blood-red eyes while riding on one of his scouts.
Jason had multiple wolves and ants hiding in the forest below and waiting for the soldiers to leave so that they could attack. Jason already decided that he would leave the Rook in charge of handling the soldiers since Jason was curious to see just how well it could perform against them. He would leave the worker ants and the remaining scouts to the rest of the Legion. Jason was sure that they would have enough power to overwhelm them!
The soldier ants reached the Rook and immediately attacked it with all their force! The soldier ants all knew that the Rook was the most dangerous enemy there! The others were also dangerous, but the Rook was the largest and sturdiest, so they automatically determined that it was the strongest! Five of them rushed the Rook and the other five began to move towards the other ants flying behind the Rook for an attack!
SCREEEECHH!!